Fraud, Lies, & Photoshop
Reuters, an international mainstream news provider featured a photograph of a bombing in Lebabon on August 5th of this year. However, through the use of photo-editing software such as PhotoShop the photograph was manipulated to exaggerate the smoke billowing over Beirut.
In my opinion, this practice is both unprofessional and unethical. Many people trust Reuters to be a trusted news source but through their photo-manipulation they are manipulating the truth. There are certain instances in photojournalism where it is appropriate to use Photoshop. However, this was not one of those instances. I feel that it is appropriate to use Photoshop to edit images only if such editing does not change what people perceive from the photograph. Small changes like adjustment of brightness, contrast or sharpness would be acceptable if it meant that the initial message of the photograph remained unaltered. Personally, I find that digitally editing a photograph can enhance the message of a picture, but there is a limit as to how far photo-editing should go. Photojournalism should not be edited in Photoshop when there is a possibility that the editing may distort the initial message. The point of photojournalism is to convey some sense of truth, but by editing this photograph, Reuters denied the public this truth. Essentially, a news provider like Reuters should not be publishing lies.
Reuters is an international, mainstream news provider. Unfortunately, I do not think that an incident such as this will have a large impact on Reuters’ reputation. I think it is likely that an incident such as this instance of photo manipulation will be overlooked because it was not concerning a hard-hitting news story. I think it is very interesting that a blogger was the first to uncover the story. This says a lot about the public’s ability to perceive and think about the information that the mainstream media is providing us. It is important for us to have the ability to dissect information presented and decipher truths from lies such as this. This article definitely sways my view of mainstream media versus independent media. It reminds me that the information being presented through mainstream media may not always be the entire truth, and that I have the right to question the validity of a story. This past summer, a family member of one of my friends was a victim of a crime. Before this, I had not known to what extent the media can distort a story. While I was hearing the facts of what happened from my friend, I was still reading news stories which greatly exaggerated the truth or even made up quotes of my friend’s family members to place in articles. I think that independent media especially recently through the advent of blogging technology can hold a great power in presenting the public with the real, whole truth.
posted by maeganfidelino @ 18.12.06
